Aye up My Duckies,
Did you all have a great Bank Holiday weekend? We certainly did! We even took a little stroll through Leafy Lane Woodland towards Heanor's Award Winning Memorial Park to watch the fabulous Heanor park fayre hosted by Ashmere Carehome.
I did get stung by a few nettles from the main entrance just before you enter the woods; usually, this has been maintained and strimmed by now, but it looks as though the Council have decided not to do it, even though it has been maintained by the Council as far back as the mid-2000s!
Anyways, we have 1400 signatures now; this is amazing! Thank you to you all for signing!
Friday 2nd September @ 4.30pm is when Amber Valley Borough Council local plan consultation comes to a close. Shortly after this time, we will submit our petition to the relevant department; however, we will keep the petition open for more signatures and updates until we hopefully reach a resolution!
If you are an Amber Valley resident or work or study in Amber Valley, there is still enough time to make our views known to the Council by filling in their local plan consultation form.
AVBC Consultation Form
It appears the Council have been extremely quiet lately with their local plan consultation form, and I would have thought, as there are only days left to make voices heard, that some of the Councillors would have given it a push; then again, apart from residents, nobody has really pushed it from the beginning!...
As you may or may not know, AVBC did not send out letters to residents regarding the local plan or even inform residents about the single late notice face-to-face consultation at the Heanor Town Hall, and this has meant that not all residents have had a chance to have their voices heard.
I am no Councillor, but I took it upon myself to send 145 letters to my neighbours living close by to Leafy Lane Woodland in Heanor. After receiving my letter, an elderly lady hunted me down by asking a few neighbours who were kind enough to point her in my direction. New housing here would significantly affect this lady, especially as she shares a boundary looking out onto Leafy Lane Woodland. Without my letter, this lady would not have known about the Local Plan; she has no internet or email!
I can imagine that a few others are in a similar situation living near Leafy Lane, especially as there are a large number of over 65s in the Heanor East area. There may also be a few disadvantaged residents that don't even own a computer. So the question I have previously raised with the Council and had no answers... is... "How are these people expected to know about the local plan or even be able to fill in fancy and wordy online local plan forms ?" (Equality Act 2010 comes to mind here?!?!).
Right.. back to the Local Plan consultation. If you have a spare few moments today, please fill in the Local Plan consultation form, as there is a section where you can select 'Object to Leafy Lane'.
There are also a few other questions relating to the local plan and other parts of Amber Valley. For anything that you can't answer, just put N/A.
Objection Letter
According to one local Council (not AVBC), you can comment on, or object to, any planning, whether it directly affects you or not, even if you have not received a letter notifying you of the application.
I believe cutting down woodland affects us all! If every Council cuts down a small area of woodland around the UK, this will add up to large forests and certainly will not benefit the Government net zero policies! No amount of new trees will help either, as it takes up to 40 years for trees to be mature enough to soak up carbon in the air! Cutting down Woodland like Leafy Lane Woodland doesn't sound like a smart plan to me!
How to Help:
If you would like to object by letter in email, please send an objection letter to:
derek.stafford@ambervalley.gov.uk
If you would like some ideas of valid objectionable points please see our post here:
Examples of Valid Objectional Points
Please take part in the consultation or send in a letter of objection before 4.30pm on Friday 2nd September.
That's all folks!
That is all from me for a little while; thank you for helping us; if you can help further, we would really appreciate it. Hopefully, we can protect our broadleaved woodland and our wildlife from harm for many more generations to come!
Rach x